his year marks the Blue Jays’ last season in the MAC Commonwealth Conference before next year’s move to the Landmark Conference. Before meeting their fellow conference teams on the field, they must first battle a few non-conference opponents.
The Blue Jays (1-2-1) head to Franklin & Marshall College (4-0-0) on Friday to take on the Diplomats for the thirty-sixth annual Battle of the Boot — a game played every season between Etown and Franklin & Marshall for possession of the Smith-Herr Boot. The Blue Jays will face a definite challenge against the undefeated Diplomats. F&M has won the Boot the past two years and has yet to concede a single goal in 2013. Etown looks to improve on their 26-10-3 all-time series record against F&M, but will need to keep the Diplomat’s senior forward Ben Beaver off the scoresheet. Beaver has had five goals in four games so far this season.
Looking further ahead, the Blue Jays have some tough competition. They will take on non-conference opponents Neumann, Misericordia, Susquehanna and Wilkes universities before beginning conference play at Ira R. Herr Field against Albright College on Oct. 5. Etown was ranked third in the MAC Commonwealth Conference men’s soccer preseason poll behind Lebanon Valley College, and arch-rivals, 2012 NCAA Division III National Champions Messiah College. The Blue Jays will face Messiah in the much-hyped and packed-with-tradition Etown-Messiah Game at home on Oct. 11. This game will be the final time the two teams will meet as conference rivals.
The Blue Jays started out this season in good form. At a Labor Day tournament in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, the Blue Jays held tenth-ranked, future Landmark Conference rivals University of Scranton to a 2-2 (2OT) draw before edging out King’s College (Pa.) 1-0 the next day.
Senior forward Luis Devia was the star of the tournament. He scored Etown’s second goal against Scranton to put the team up 2-1 in the seventy-sixth minute and scored the lone game-winning goal for the Blue Jays against King’s. For his efforts, he was named Commonwealth Conference Men’s Soccer Player of the Week for the first week of the 2013 season. Devia is the first Etown player to receive the honor since junior forward Eric Borkowicz earned the honor in Oct. 2011.
The Blue Jays faced off against Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Carnegie Mellon last weekend in the Brothers Pizza Blue Jay/Red Devil Classic at Ira R. Herr Field. In Saturday’s game against RIT, the Tigers struck first in the thirty-fifth minute, and they added a second goal in the fifty-seventh minute to make the score 2-0. The Blue Jays were able to get a goal back in the seventy second minute when first-year Brent Batory played a ball past the Tigers across the goalmouth, and junior Andrew Sandridge was able to slip the ball just inside the right goalpost for his first goal of the season. Despite controlling the last 30 minutes, the Blue Jays could not find a way in behind the Tigers’ defense, and they fell to RIT by a score of 2-1.
Sunday’s game against
Carnegie Mellon University did not yield a better result for the Blue Jays, as Etown lost their second straight game, this time by a score of 1-0. Rodrigo Barrera tried his best to keep Etown in the game. The sophomore goalkeeper from São Paulo, Brazil, faced 23 shots and recorded ten saves on the day, but an intercepted pass in the defensive half led to the only goal Carnegie Mellon would need.
The Blue Jays’ next home game will take place against Nuemann at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18.
